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Once Buried

Chapter Three

After their target practice, Riley was still worried about Bill. True, he’d recovered quickly after freezing up that once. And he’d actually seemed to enjoy himself when they started firing at close quarters.

He’d even seemed cheerful when he left Quantico to go back to his apartment. Still, he wasn’t the same old Bill who had been her partner for so many years – and who had long since become her best friend.

She knew what he was most worried about.

Bill was afraid that he might not ever be able to come back to work.

She wished she could reassure him with kind, simple words – something like…

“You’re just going through a rough stretch. Happens to all of us. You’ll be over it sooner than you think.”

But glib reassurances weren’t what Bill needed right now. And the truth was, Riley didn’t really know whether it was true.

She’d suffered her own spells of PTSD, and knew how hard recovery could be. She would just have to help Bill work through that awful process.

Although Riley went back to her office, she actually had little to do at BAU today. She didn’t currently have an assignment, and these slow days had been welcome after the intensity of the last case in Iowa. She wrapped up the few details that needed her attention and left.

As Riley drove home, she was feeling contented at the thought of dinner with her family. She was especially pleased that she had invited Blaine Hildreth and his daughter to join them tonight.

Riley was delighted that Blaine was part of her life. He was a handsome, charming man. And like her, he was fairly recently divorced.

He was also, as it turned out, remarkably brave.

It was Blaine who had shot and badly wounded Shane Hatcher when he had threatened Riley’s family.

Riley would always be grateful to him for that.

She had spent one night with Blaine so far, at his home. They’d been fairly discreet about it – his daughter, Crystal, had been away visiting her cousins during spring break. Riley smiled at the memory of their passionate lovemaking.

Was tonight going to end the same way?

* * *

Riley’s live-in housekeeper, Gabriela, had fixed a delicious meal of chiles rellenos from a family recipe that she’d brought from Guatemala. Everybody was thoroughly enjoying the steaming, lusciously stuffed bell peppers.

Riley was feeling deep satisfaction with a very good dinner and wonderful company.

“Not too picante?” Gabriela asked.

It wasn’t too hot and spicy for American taste buds, of course, and Riley was sure that Gabriela knew it. Gabriela always exercised restraint with her original Central American recipes. She was obviously fishing for compliments, which came quickly and easily.

“No, it’s perfect,” Riley’s fifteen-year-old daughter, April, said.

“The best ever,” said Jilly, the thirteen-year-old girl that Riley was in the process of adopting.

“Just amazing,” said Crystal, April’s best friend.

Crystal’s father, Blaine Hildreth, didn’t say anything right away. But Riley could tell by his expression that he was enchanted by the dish. She also knew that Blaine’s appreciation was partly professional. Blaine owned an upscale but casual restaurant here in Fredericksburg.

“How do you do it, Gabriela?” he asked after a few bites.

“Es un secreto,” Gabriela said with a mischievous grin.

“A secret, eh?” Blaine said. “What kind of cheese did you use? I can’t place it. I can tell it’s not Monterey Jack or Chihuahua. Manchego, maybe?”

Gabriela shook her head.

“I will never tell,” she said with a chuckle.

As Blaine and Gabriela continued to banter about the recipe, partly in English and partly in Spanish, Riley caught herself wondering if she and Blaine might…

She blushed a little at the idea.

No, not going to happen tonight.

There could hardly be any graceful, discreet segue with everybody here.

Not that there was anything wrong with things as they were.

Being surrounded by people she cared deeply about was pleasure enough for this particular evening. But as she watched her family and friends enjoying themselves, a new concern began to tug at Riley’s mind.

One person at the table had barely said a word so far. That was Liam, the newcomer to Riley’s household. Liam was April’s age, and the two teenagers had been dating at one time. Riley had rescued the tall, gangly kid from an abusive, drunken father. He’d needed a place to live and right now that meant sleeping on the sofa bed in Riley’s family room.

Liam was normally talkative and outgoing. But something seemed to be troubling him tonight.

Riley asked, “Is anything wrong, Liam?”

The boy didn’t seem to even hear her.

Riley spoke just a little louder.

“Liam.”

Liam looked up from his meal, which he had barely touched so far.

“Huh?” he said.

“Is anything wrong?”

“No. Why?”

Riley squinted uneasily. Something was wrong, all right. Liam was seldom monosyllabic like this.

“I just wondered,” she said.

She made a mental note to talk to Liam alone later on.

* * *

Gabriela capped off the meal with a delicious dessert of flan. Riley and Blaine enjoyed after-dinner drinks while the four kids entertained themselves in the family room, and finally Blaine and his daughter went on home.

Riley waited until April and Jilly went to their rooms for the night. Then she went alone to the family room. Liam was sitting quietly on the still-closed sofa, staring off into space.

“Liam, I can tell something’s wrong. I wish you’d tell me about it.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Liam said.

Riley crossed her arms and said nothing. She knew from dealing with the girls that it was sometimes best to wait kids out.

Then Liam said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Riley was startled. She was used to adolescent moodiness from April and Jilly, at least from time to time. But it wasn’t typical of Liam at all. He was always agreeable and obliging. He was also a dedicated student, and Riley appreciated his influence on April.

Riley continued to wait in silence.

Finally Liam said, “I got a call from Dad today.”

Riley felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach.

She couldn’t help remembering that terrible day when she’d rushed over to Liam’s house to save him from being badly beaten by his father.

She knew she shouldn’t be surprised. But she didn’t know what to say.

Liam said, “He says he’s sorry about everything. He says he misses me.”

Riley’s worry deepened. She had no legal custody over Liam. Right now, she was acting as a sort of impromptu foster parent, and she had no idea exactly what her future role in his life would be.

“Does he want you to come back home?” Riley asked.

Liam nodded.

Riley couldn’t bring herself to ask the obvious question…

“What do you want?”

What would she do – what could she do – if Liam said he wanted to go back?

Riley knew that Liam was a gentle, forgiving boy. Like many abuse victims, he was also prone to deep denial.

Riley sat down beside him.

She asked, “Have you been happy here?”

Liam made a small choking sound. For the first time, Riley realized that he was near tears.

“Oh, yes,” he said. “This has been… I’ve just been… so happy.”

Riley felt her own throat catch a little. She wanted to tell him he could stay here for as long as he wished. But what could she do if his father demanded that he come back? She’d be powerless to stop it from happening.

A tear trickled down Liam’s cheek.

“It’s just that… since Mom went away… I’m all Dad’s got. Or at least I was until I left. Now he’s all alone. He says he’s stopped drinking. He says he won’t hurt me anymore.”

Riley almost blurted out…

“Don’t believe him. Don’t ever believe him when he says that.”

Instead, she said, “Liam, you must know that your dad is very ill.”

“I know,” Liam said.

“It’s up to him to get the help he needs. But until he does… well, it’s going to be very hard for him to change.”

Riley fell silent for a moment.

Then she added, “Just always remember that it’s not your fault. You know that, don’t you?”

Liam gulped down a sob and nodded.

“Have you ever gone back to see him?” Riley asked.

Liam shook his head silently.

Riley patted his hand.

“I just want you to promise me one thing. If you do go to see him, don’t go by yourself. I want to be there with you. Do you promise?”

“I promise,” Liam said.

Riley reached for a nearby box of tissues and offered one to Liam, who wiped his eyes and blew his nose. Then the two of them sat in silence for a few long moments.

Finally Riley said, “Do you need me for anything else?”

“No. I’m OK now. Thank you for… well, you know.”

He smiled at her weakly.

“Pretty much everything,” he added.

“You’re very welcome,” Riley said, returning his smile.

She left the family room, walked to the living room, and sat alone on the couch.

Suddenly, a sob rose up in her own throat, and she started to cry. She was startled to realize how shaken she’d been by her conversation with Liam.

But when she thought about it, it was easy enough to understand why.

I’m so out of my depth, she thought.

After all, she was still trying to get Jilly’s adoption settled. She’d rescued the poor girl from her own share of horrors. When Riley had found her, Jilly had been trying to sell her body out of sheer desperation.

So what did Riley think she was doing, bringing another teenager into the house?

She suddenly wished Blaine was still here to talk to.

Blaine always seemed to know what to say.

She had enjoyed the lull between cases for a while, but little by little, worries had started to creep in – worries especially about her family, and today about Bill.

It hardly felt like any kind of vacation.

Riley couldn’t help but wonder…

Is something wrong with me?

Was she somehow just incapable of enjoying a quiet life?

Anyway, she knew she could be sure of one thing.

This lull wouldn’t last. Somewhere, some monster was committing some heinous deed – and it would be up to her to stop him.

Chapter Four

Riley was awakened early the next morning by the sound of her phone buzzing.

She groaned aloud as she shook herself awake.

The lull is over, she thought.

She looked at her phone and saw that she was right. It was a text message from her team chief at the BAU, Brent Meredith. It was a call to meet with him, and it was written in his typical terse style…

BAU 8:00

She looked at the time and realized she’d have to hurry to make it to the hastily planned appointment. Quantico was only a half-hour drive from home, but she needed to get out of here fast.

It took Riley just minutes to brush her teeth, comb her hair, get dressed, and rush downstairs.

Gabriela was already making breakfast in the kitchen.

“Is coffee ready?” Riley asked her.

“Sí,” Gabriela said, and poured her a hot cup.

Riley sipped the coffee eagerly.

“You must leave without breakfast?” Gabriela asked her.

“I’m afraid so.”

Gabriela handed her a bagel.

“Then take this with you. You must have something in your stomach.”

Riley thanked Gabriela, gulped down some more of the coffee, and rushed out to her car.

During the short drive to Quantico, a peculiar feeling came over her.

She actually began to feel better than she had during the last few days, even slightly euphoric.

It was partly an adrenaline boost, of course, as her mind and body prepared to embark upon a new case.

But it was also something rather unsettling – a feeling that things were somehow getting back to normal.

Riley sighed at the realization.

She wondered – what did it mean that hunting monsters felt more normal to her than spending time with people she loved?

It can’t be… well, normal, she thought.

Worse, it reminded her of something that her father, a brutal and bitter retired Marine officer, had told her before he died.

“You’re a hunter. What folks call normal – it would kill you if you tried living it too long.”

Riley wanted with all her heart for it not to be true.

But at times like now, she couldn’t help but worry – were the roles of wife, mother, and friend impossible for her to fill?

Was it hopeless to even try?

Was “the hunt” the only thing she really had in life?

No, definitely not the only thing.

Surely not even the most important thing in her life.

Firmly, she put the unpleasant question out of her mind.

When she arrived at the BAU building, she parked and hurried inside and straight to Brent Meredith’s office.

She saw that Jenn was already there, looking a lot more bright-eyed and awake than Riley felt. Riley knew that Jenn, like Bill, had an apartment in the town of Quantico, so she’d been in less of a rush to get here. But Riley also attributed some of Jenn’s early-morning freshness to her youth.

Riley had been much the same as Jenn when she was younger – ready and eager to spring into action at a moment’s notice, at any time of day or night, and able to go without sleep for extended intervals when the job demanded it.

Were those days slipping behind her?

It wasn’t a pleasant thought, and it didn’t brighten Riley’s already uneasy mood.

Sitting at his desk, Brent Meredith cut a formidable figure as always, with his black, angular features, his broad frame, and his perpetual down-to-business attitude.

Riley sat down, and Meredith wasted no time getting to the point.

“There was a murder this morning. It happened on the public beach at the Belle Terre Nature Preserve. Are either of you familiar with the place?”

Jenn said, “I’ve been there a few times. A great place for hiking.”

“I’ve been there too,” Riley said.

Riley remembered the nature preserve pretty well. It was on the Chesapeake Bay, just a little more than a two-hour drive from Quantico. It had several hundred forested acres and a wide public beach on the bay. It was a popular area for outdoor types.

Meredith drummed his fingers on his desk.

“The victim was Todd Brier, a Lutheran pastor in nearby Sattler. He’d been buried alive on the beach.”

Riley shuddered a little.

Buried alive!

She’d had nightmares about it, but she had never actually worked on a case involving this particular type of grisly murder.

Meredith continued, “Brier was found at about seven this morning, and it looked like he’d only been dead for about an hour.”

Jenn asked, “What makes this an FBI case?”

Meredith said, “Brier’s not the first victim. Yesterday another body was found nearby – a young woman named Courtney Wallace.”

Riley suppressed a sigh.

“Don’t tell me,” she said. “Also buried alive.”

“You’ve got it,” Meredith said. “She was killed on one of the hiking trails at the same nature preserve, apparently also early in the morning. She was discovered later in the day when a hiker came across the disturbed earth and called park services.”

Meredith leaned back in his chair and swiveled slightly back and forth.

He said, “So far, the local cops don’t have any suspects or witnesses. Other than the locations and the MO, they don’t have much of anything. Both victims were young, healthy people. There hasn’t been time to find out if they were connected in any way, other than that they were both out there early in the morning.”

Riley’s mind clicked away as she tried to make sense of what she’d just heard. So far, she had too little to go on.

She asked, “Have the local cops closed off the area?”

Meredith nodded.

“They’ve closed the forested area near that trail and half of the beach to the public. I’ve told them not to move the body on the beach until my people get there.”

“What about the woman’s body?” Jenn asked.

“It’s at the morgue in Sattler, the nearest city. The Tidewater District medical examiner is at the beach right now. I want the two of you to get down there as fast as you can. Take an FBI vehicle, something conspicuous. I’m hoping that if the FBI is visibly on the scene, it will at least slow this perpetrator down. My guess is that he isn’t done killing yet.”

Meredith glanced back and forth at Riley and Jenn.

“Any questions?” he asked.

Riley did have a question, but she didn’t know whether she should ask it.

Finally she said, “Sir, I’d like to make a request.”

“Well?” Meredith said, leaning back in his chair again.

“I’d like Special Agent Jeffreys to be assigned to this case.”

Meredith’s eyes narrowed.

“Jeffreys is on leave,” he said. “I’m sure that you and Agent Roston here can handle this between the two of you.”

“I’m sure we can,” Riley said. “But…”

She hesitated.

“But what?” Meredith said.

Riley swallowed hard. She knew that Meredith didn’t much like it when agents asked for personal favors.

She said, “I think he needs to get back to work, sir. I think it would do him good.”

Meredith scowled and said nothing for a moment.

Then he said, “I won’t officially assign him to the case. But if you want him to work with you on an informal basis, I’ve got no objection.”

Riley thanked him, trying not to be too effusive lest he change his mind. Then she and Jenn requisitioned an official FBI SUV.

As Jenn started to drive south, Riley got out her cell phone and texted Bill.

I’m working on a new case with Roston. Chief says it’s OK for U to join us. I want you to.

Riley waited for a few moments. Her heart beat a little faster when she saw that the message was marked “read.”

Then she typed…

Can we count U in?

Again the message was marked “read,” but there was no response.

Riley’s spirits sank.

Maybe this isn’t a good idea, she thought. Maybe it’s still too soon.

She wished Bill would reply, if only to tell her no.

Chapter Five

As Jenn drove the SUV south toward their destination, Riley kept eyeing the text messages she’d sent on her cell phone.

Minutes passed, and Bill still didn’t reply.

Finally she decided to give him a call.

She punched in his number. To her frustration, she got his voice mail.

At the sound of the beep, she simply said, “Bill, call me. Now.”

As Riley set the phone down in her lap, Jenn glanced over at her from behind the wheel.

“Is anything wrong?” Jenn asked.

“I don’t know,” Riley said. “I hope not.”

Her worry kept mounting during the drive. She remembered a text she’d received from Bill while she’d been working on her most recent case in Iowa…

Just so you know. Been sitting here with a gun in my mouth.

Riley shuddered at the memory of the desperate phone call that had followed, when she’d managed to talk him out of committing suicide.

Was it happening again?

If so, what could Riley do to help?

A sudden shrill, piercing noise chased these thoughts from Riley’s head. It took a second for her to realize that Jenn had turned on the siren upon running into a patch of slow traffic.

Riley took the siren as a stern reminder…

I’ve got to get my head in the game.

* * *

It was about ten-thirty when Riley and Jenn arrived in the Belle Terre Nature Preserve. They followed a road to the beach until they found a couple of parked police cars and a medical examiner’s van. Beyond the vehicles on a grassy rise was a barrier of police tape to keep the public away from the beach.

The beach wasn’t immediately visible as Riley and Jenn got out of the van. But Riley saw gulls flying overhead, felt a crisp breeze on her face, smelled salt in the air, and heard the sound of surf.

Riley was dismayed but hardly surprised that a small group of reporters had already gathered in the parking area beyond the crime scene. They crowded around Riley and Jenn, asking questions.

“We’ve had two murders in two days. Is there a serial killer at work?”

“You’ve released the name of yesterday’s victim. Have you identified this new victim?”

“Have you contacted the victim’s family?”

“Is it true that both victims were buried alive?”

Riley cringed at that last question. Of course, she wasn’t surprised that word had gotten out about how the victims had died. Reporters could have learned that much from listening to local police scanners. But she had no doubt that the media was going to sensationalize these murders for all they were worth.

Riley and Jenn pushed past the reporters without commenting. Then they were greeted by a couple of local cops, who escorted them past the police tape over the grassy rise onto the beach. Riley could feel sand seeping into her shoes as she walked.

In a moment, the murder scene came into view.

Several men surrounded a hole dug in the sand where the body still remained. Two of them strode toward Riley and Jenn as they approached. One was a stocky, red-haired man in a uniform. The other, a slender man with curly black hair, was wearing a white shirt.

“I’m glad you could get here so soon,” the red-haired man said when Riley and Jenn introduced themselves. “I’m Parker Belt, the Sattler police chief. This is Zane Terzis, the Tidewater District medical examiner.”

Chief Belt led Riley and Jenn over to the hole and they looked down at the half-uncovered body.

Riley was more than used to seeing corpses in various states of mutilation and decomposition. Even so, this one jolted her with a unique kind of horror.

He was a blond man, about thirty years old, and he was wearing a jogging outfit suitable for a cool summer morning’s run along the beach. His arms remained sprawled in a statue-like state of rigor mortis from his desperate attempts to dig himself out. His eyes were shut tight, and his wide-open mouth was filled with sand.

Chief Belt stood next to Riley and Jenn.

Belt said, “He still had a wallet with plenty of identification – not that we really needed it. I recognized him the second Terzis and his men uncovered his face. His name is Todd Brier, and he’s a Lutheran pastor in Sattler. I didn’t go to his church – I’m a Methodist. But I knew him. We were good friends. We went fishing together from time to time.”

Belt’s voice was thick with sorrow and shock.

“How was the body found?” Riley asked.

“A guy came by walking a dog,” Belt said. “The dog stopped here, sniffing and whining, then started digging, and right away a hand appeared.”

“Is the guy who found the body still around?” Riley asked.

Belt shook his head.

“We sent him home. He was badly shaken up. But we told him he needed to be available for questions. I can put you in touch with him.”

Riley looked up from the body over to the water, which was some fifty feet away. The waters of the Chesapeake Bay were a deep rich blue, with white-topped waves lapping softly at the wet sand. Riley could see that the tide was going out.

Riley asked, “This was the second murder?”

“It was,” Belt replied grimly.

“Has anything like this ever happened here before these two?”

“Right here in Belle Terre, you mean?” Belt said. “No, nothing like it at all. This is a peaceful preserve for birds and wildlife. Local people use this beach, mostly families. From time to time we have to arrest some would-be poacher or settle an argument among visitors. We also have to chase away transients from time to time. That’s about as serious as it gets.”

Riley stepped around the hole to look at the body from a different angle. She saw a patch of blood on the back of the victim’s head.

“What do you make of this wound?” she asked Terzis.

“It looks like he was struck by some hard object,” the ME said. I’ll study it better when we get the body to the morgue. But from the looks of it, I’d say it was probably enough to daze him, just long enough so he couldn’t put up a fight while the killer was burying him. I doubt that he was ever completely unconscious. It’s pretty obvious that he struggled hard.”

Riley shuddered.

Yes, that much was obvious.

She said to Jenn, “Take some pictures and also send them to me.”

Jenn immediately took out her cell phone and started snapping photos of the hole and the corpse. Meanwhile, Riley walked slowly around the hole checking the beach in all directions. The killer hadn’t left a lot of clues. The sand around the hole had obviously been disturbed by the killer when he’d been digging, and there was a trail of vague footprints where the jogger had approached.

Vague, too, were any footprints left by the killer. The dry sand didn’t hold the shape of a shoe. But Riley could see where the marsh grass she’d come through had been broken down by someone other than the investigative team.

She pointed and said to Belt, “Have your guys scour that grass carefully to see if any fibers might have gotten caught there.”

The chief nodded.

A feeling began to creep over Riley – a familiar feeling that she sometimes got at a crime scene.

She hadn’t felt it often during her most recent cases. But it was a welcome feeling, one that she knew she could use as a tool.

It was an uncanny sense of the killer himself.

If she allowed herself to let that feeling sweep over her, she was likely to get some insights into just what had happened here.

Riley moved a few steps away from the group gathered at the scene. She glanced at Jenn and saw that her partner was watching her. Riley knew that Jenn was aware of her reputation for getting into killers’ minds. Riley nodded, and saw Jenn swing into action, asking questions of her own, distracting the others on the scene and giving Riley a few moments to concentrate her skills.

Riley closed her eyes and tried to picture the scene as it must have looked at the time of the murder.

Images and sounds came to her remarkably easily.

It was dim outside, and the beach was shadowy, but there were traces of light in the sky across the water from where the sun would later rise, and it wasn’t too dark to see.

The tide was up, and the water was probably only an easy stone’s throw away, so the sound of the surf was loud.

Loud enough so he could barely hear himself digging, Riley realized.

At that moment, Riley had no trouble stepping into a strange mind…

Yes, he was digging, and she could feel the strain of his muscles as he threw shovels of sand as far away as he could, feel the mixture of sweat and sea spray on his face.

The digging wasn’t easy. In fact, it was a bit frustrating.

It wasn’t easy to dig a hole in beach sand like this.

Sand had a way of trickling back in, partially refilling the space where he dug.

He was thinking…

It won’t be very deep. But it doesn’t have to be deep.

All the while he kept glancing up at the beach, looking for his prey. And sure enough, he soon appeared, jogging along contentedly not far away.

And at the perfect time, too – the hole was just as deep as it needed to be.

The killer pushed the shovel into the sand and raised up his hands and waved.

“Come over here!” he shouted to the jogger.

Not that it mattered what he shouted – over the sound of the surf, the jogger wouldn’t be able to pick out his actual words, just a muffled yell.

The jogger stopped at the sound and looked his way.

Then he walked over to the killer.

The jogger was smiling as he approached, and the killer was smiling back at him.

Soon they were within earshot of each other.

“What’s up?” the jogger yelled over the surf.

“Come here and I’ll show you,” the killer yelled back.

The jogger unwarily walked over to where the killer was standing.

“Look down there,” the killer said. “Look really close.”

The jogger bent over, and with a swift, deft movement, the killer picked up the shovel and hit him in the back of the head, knocking him into the hole…

Riley was yanked out of her reverie by the sound of Chief Belt’s voice.

“Agent Paige?”

Riley opened her eyes and saw that Belt was looking at her with a curious expression. He hadn’t been distracted long by Jenn’s questions.

He said, “You seemed to leave us for a few moments there.”

Riley heard Jenn chuckle from nearby.

“She does that sometimes,” Jenn told the chief. “Don’t worry, she’s hard at work.”

Riley quickly reviewed the impressions she’d just gotten – all very hypothetical, of course, and hardly a moment-by-moment sense of what had actually happened.

But she felt very sure of one detail – that the jogger had come over at the killer’s invitation – and had approached him without fear.

This gave her a small but crucial insight.

Riley said to the police chief, “The killer is charming, likeable. People trust him.”

The chief’s eyes widened.

“How do you know?” he asked.

Riley heard laughter from someone approaching behind her.

“Trust me, she knows what she’s doing.”

She whirled around at the sound of the voice.

Her spirits brightened at what she saw.